Yes, it's very pretty. But pretty much useless as well and obsolete, like the Shuttle. Investigations on cosmic radiation and other space physics can be accomplished on unmanned satellites. Onboard systems are failing and can't be upgraded to new technology as it's design prevents easy retrofitting. Electrical as well as other systems hardware would need to be completely replaced throughout the station.

What I believe it's main mission is today is a pick-up point for other missions kept under wraps.

A Home Depot in space....

...supplying food, fuel and other equipment to space stations and craft on secret missions. Of course I can't prove this but
what else is all the stuff going up there for? Yes, some of the equipment is for the station to maintain it's integrity. It needs to stay operational until another system goes online. I'm still gathering information so more follow-ups will follow.

But look at what The NASA channel is showing about it's mission. All you ever see is short, selected video of the station orbiting the Earth in one minute segments. And internal video of personnel banging away on computers or eating Jell-O in zero gravity. NASA has been spouting about the new High Definition Television cameras all over the station, pointing to different areas and Earth.

Well, why don't they have a Hi-Def channel for us to see this amazing footage? Or even broadcast any footage?

NASA does broadcast the Shuttle launches in HD but...we never get to see any Shuttle footage when it reaches orbit insertion, on it's way to the station or on it's way back. Why?..  Because they're seeing things and doing things they don't want us to see. Whether it be UFO's, other space craft rendezvous, docking at secret space stations, etc.I need to investigate this much more so just chew on that for a while.

Now it seems to me, this is an extraordinarily large amount of food and water for three people. How would they keep fruit and vegetables from spoiling? You can't freeze fresh fruit and vegetables... Well, you can but freezing would ruin them. And it was fresh, not dehydrated, cooked or freeze dried.

Google this and you can find many references to the fresh fruit.

Progress-M 59...

...is a Russian automatic cargo carrier that was launched by a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur at 02:12 UT on 18 January 2007, toward the International Space Station. 

It carried 2.5 tons of food, fuel, water and equipment and docked with the PIRS module of the ISS at 03:03 UT on 20 January. 

Notice the January flight doesn't break-down the individual weights.How much of that was food and water? And it doesn't take three days to reach the station! All launches are supposed to be timed to make an orbit (a couple of hours at most) and then dock.

What was going on in those three days?

Progress-M 60...

...is a Russian automatic cargo carrier that was launched by a Soyuz-U rocket from Baikonur at 03:25 UT on 12 May 2007.

It carried 45 kg of air, 419 kg of water, and 1.4 tons of dry cargo, 241 kg of fresh fruits and vegetables, 136 kg of medical equipment.

It docked automatically with the Zvezda module of the ISS at 05:10 UT on 15 May 2007.(docked on the fourth day) Four days to reach the ISS? There is no explanation for this behavior.

La Progress M-60 en órbita (Brazilian)
...de ellos 212 kilos de legumbres y frutas frescas

Progress M-60 Docked with ISS (Russian)
Progress M-60 has delivered to astronaut’s water, fuel, new research equipment, food, fresh fruit and vegetables

Progress 60 PDF
Progress is carrying 241 kilos of food, including fresh fruit and vegetables, 136 kilos of medical equipment, medicines and personal items - which includes parcels from the families of crewmembers. Specific to the US side of the ISS, Progress is carrying 377 kilos of food, equipment and clothing.

This article also shows the timeline. The last three paragraphs show the M-60 was not on an ISS course. There were nine separate major thruster-burns in the three days before docking. Do you see how one can find discrepancies with innocent comments?

We are finding alot of information this way. You'll never find anything asking direct questions about a direct subject. One needs to look at the overall picture of any subject and break-down the subtleties and you'll find them.

I watched the Hi-Def 30 minute broadcast of an "interview" with one of the crew members of the ISS on Discovery HD channel on 08/15/07. (on all this week at different times) Ten minutes of it was on what they eat. No mention of fresh fruit or vegetables. The Commander showed dehydrated food packets, fruit juice packets and everything was in packets. Not a banana, apple or veggie in sight or even mentioned.

Now that is intriguing. 

I also watched the broadcast of STS 118 crew member Barbara Morgan on 08/16/07, talking to Idaho students via HAM radio. One student asked about her favorite food she eats on the station. M&M's was her choice and she explained that all their food was in packets and vacuum sealed. Some was dehydrated and some in cooked form which they could heat-up for meals. Again...no mention of fresh fruit and veggies. So I ask you again...

...where is the fruit and veggies going? And there's alot of it. 

(Ed. Note: 241 kilograms is 531.3086 pounds... that is over a quarter of a TON of fruit and veggies)

Look at the US Patent below and maybe we have an answer...
 
 

Neither the Russian nor Americans have ever mentioned fresh fruit & veggies. The table below shows part of the LSS about the food storage. Below the table is the complete documents on the Russian LSS
 

The Russian LSS is in two parts. Pay attention in Part 2, page 13 &14. That is Section 5 about the food storage and preparation. Everything is in packets. Most is dehydrated. Some is cooked. But none of it is fresh.
 
 

Again, M-61 didn't dock until 73 hours after lift-off.

The Progress M-61 cargo spacecraft carrying food, water, and fuel supplies for the crew, and equipment to repair onboard computers has automatically docked with the global orbital station, mission control said. The cargo ship docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on schedule at 22:40 Moscow time (18:40 GMT) Sunday delivering much needed additional equipment to fix the onboard laptops of the Russian segment, which crashed on June 11. The Russian crew, Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov, had temporarily repaired the damage but extra equipment was required.

The Progress also delivered equipment to conduct space experiments as part of the Japanese program. This is the third Russian cargo spacecraft sent to the ISS this year, and by the end of 2007, the Soyuz cargo ship will  make another scheduled flight to the ISS.

Following a three-day free flight, Russian cargo transport vehicle Progress M-61 docked to the International Space Station. "The vehicle delivered more than 2.5 tons of cargoes. They encompass oxygen, water and food supplies, propellant, consumables, science hardware and equipment, including 459 kg of equipment for the US Segment". Again, no break-down of the individual contents and weights, except for the US Segment in weight.

The Russian Segment of the ISS is made up of the Functional Cargo Module Zarya, Service Module Zvezda, docking compartment-module Pirs, transport vehicles Soyuz TMA-10, Progress M-60 and Progress M-61 cargo transport vehicles. Progress M-59 cargo transport vehicle operating as part of the station on August 1, 2007 was undocked from Pirs module and deorbited into the Pacific Ocean. The unburned vehicle structural elements landed at 23:28.
 

My note: M-61 is still docked at the station and will be for several months until M-62 is launched later this year. Where is M-60? Docked in May. Here are the specs and launch date of M-60:

Last Flight Date: 2007-05-12

I don't think this and the other Progress vehicles were ever in "orbital storage". The Russians can't afford to throw away cargo carriers at a rate of 4 or 5 a year. The cost of the M-60 flight is as follows:

The head of Russian spacecraft manufacturer Energia, Nikolai Sevastyanov said: "It had cost more than $64,000,000 to ship the 2.5-ton cargo to the ISS. With the delivery of one kilogram of payload by a Progress freighter costing on average, $22,000 to $25,000". According to Russian and American Space agencies, all the transports are de-orbited and burn-up upon re-entry. These transports are huge. This would be seen re-entering and would not burn-up completely before slamming into the ocean.

I haven't heard any reports of them being seen on re-entry.
 

I believe, and will try to prove, these cargo transports are being re-used for other missions.

Stay tuned.
 

The Russian transport spaceship Progress M-59 sank into the Pacific Ocean on the evening of August 1 after undocking with the International Space Station. The heatproof elements of the craft that did not burn up upon entry into Earth's atmosphere fell into the section of the Pacific known as the “spaceship graveyard,” according to the press service of the Flight Control Center in Korolev, outside Moscow.
The location of the craft's fall is far from shipping routes ad about 3000 km. west of the capital of New Zealand. The sinking of the remains of the craft was absolutely safe, Flight Control emphasized.

The Progress M-59 was launched on January 18 of this year, timed to the 100th birthday of Sergey Korolev. The spacecraft brought fuel components to the space station that will be used to maintain its orbit, as well as scientific equipment, food for the crew and snails and worms for experiments.

On 6:02 p.m. Moscow time on Wednesday, the Progress M-59 undocked from the International Space Station and, when it was a safe distance from the station, it began it fall in to the ocean on a ballistic trajectory. Various forms of waste and outdated equipment were on the craft.

Progress M-61 took off for the space station at 9:33 p.m. on August 2. That launch was dedicated to the 150th birthday of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. It is expected to reach the space station at 10:40 p.m., August 5.

www.kommersant.com

Posted on: Saturday, 12 May 2007, 06:00 CDT
Russian Cargo Ship Blasts Off to Space

MOSCOW - An unmanned Russian cargo ship carrying 2.5 tons of supplies, equipment and gifts blasted off Saturday en route to the international space station, officials said.

The Progress M-60 mounted atop a Soyuz-U booster rocket lifted off as scheduled at 7:25 a.m. from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and entered the designated preliminary orbit, Russia's Federal Space Agency said in a statement.

Following a series of maneuvers to adjust its orbit to that of the station, the ship is scheduled to moor at the orbiting outpost Tuesday.

It will deliver oxygen, water food and scientific equipment to the station's current crew - Russian cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov and U.S. astronaut Sunita Williams.

Along with other cargo, the spaceship is also carrying books, movies, gifts and other personal items for the crew. It is also delivering snails intended for biological experiments.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

Food supply
Almost all food is dehydrated and requires potable water to rehydrate.
Diet includes moist food, which provides a source of water to the system.

Potable water
Minerals are added to the processed condensate water, which add flavor and provide a pH-balanced water.
No additives to the potable water.

Hardware location
When possible, hardware items performing related or connected functions are located in the same module to avoid the need to plumb fluids between modules.
When possible, hardware items performing related or connected functions are located in the same module; however, fluids are plumbed between modules.

Hardware maintenance
Components are replaced after failure, or based on statistical expectation of failure.
Components are replaced after failure or, for limited-life items, on a scheduled basis

Shower Water and Food PDF

19 minutes to reach outer Earth orbit insertion after lift-off.
90 minutes to reach low Earth orbit after lift off.

Two days to reach the Moon after they leave low Earth orbit. And this was Apollo 17, 35 years ago. So why does it take 4 days to reach the ISS?

Progress M class Automatic Cargo Carrier Is An Unmanned Craft. What is the 1.4 tons of "dry cargo" in the May flight?  I haven't been able to find any reference to it except that. And 100lbs of air? The station makes it's own air that's part of the life support system. 

Although the Russian built oxygen generator Elektron failed in Jan.'07, it's was repairable after extensive diagnosis and spare parts were employed. A hundred pounds would keep you alive for about 5 minutes. Uncompressed, a cubic yard of air weighs about 2.5 lbs

Didn't know that did you? 

A typical divers air tank can hold between 1700 and 2400 lbs of compressed air. At a depth of 33 feet, a diver consumes 50 lbs per minute. So what is 100 lbs being used for? The fuel system? I doubt that very much. The station only has attitude thrusters for orientation. The station is dependent on visiting vehicles to adjust it's altitude when needed.

The station already has back-up air supplies on hand and enough for several months. Although some air is lost every time air-locks are opened to do an EVA. And I saw a reference to that somewhere but 100 lbs wouldn't even make a dent in air lock loss.

Here is a Lay-version of how the Life Support System works:

Life Support System

Initially, Space Station personnel breathed oxygen from "perchlorate candles," which produce oxygen using chemical reactions inside a metal canister. Later, the arrival of new equipment was used to produce oxygen using "electrolysis," which uses electricity from Solar panels to split water molecules into hydrogen gas and oxygen gas. 

Currently, carbon dioxide is removed from the air by a machine using a material called "zeolite" as a molecular sieve, while hydrogen that is generated from this process is vented into space. 

Eventually, however, a machine will be used to combines the hydrogen with excess carbon dioxide from the air in a chemical reaction to produce water and methane. The water produced would partially replace the water used to make oxygen, while the methane would be vented to space. In the event of breakdowns, however, the ISS will maintain redundant supplies of oxygen gas for the safety of the crew. 

In Humans, methane and carbon dioxide are produced in the intestines, and ammonia is created by the breakdown of urea in sweat. Humans also emit acetone, methyl alcohol, and carbon monoxide, as the byproducts of metabolism through urination and breathing. Currently, activated charcoal filters are the primary method by which these chemicals are removed from the air.

Inventors: Butterfield; Ansel J. (Newport News, VA), Goslee; John W. (Newport News, VA) 
Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Administrator of the (Washington, DC)

My note: The rest of the Assignee sentence is missing from the text.

Other References 
Lunar Science Institute, Criswell, copyright 1976. .
Vinopal, "Aeroassisted Orbital Transfer Vehicle Sys Tech Study", D180-29222-1 Boeing 1985.

Pegasus Update:
Publication number: US5092545
Publication date: 1992-03-03
Inventor: BUTTERFIELD ANSEL J (US); GOSLEE JOHN W (US)
Applicant: NASA (US)
US5092545 PDF